Quality Education with a Commitment to Gender Equality: Seminario Andino San Pablo
The small Seminario Andino San Pablo in the Peruvian highlands, led by Pastor César Llanco, has ambitious goals: to provide theological education and continuing education to the indigenous population – in a gender-equitable, ecumenical, and contextual manner, at university level. In Peru, a country that is predominantly Catholic and is currently becoming increasingly evangelical-fundamentalist, this is a somewhat unexpected and significant undertaking that is virtually unparalleled.
© Foto: privat | Pastor César Llanco at the 2019 Women's Class Graduation Ceremony
The passenger train runs only once every 14 days from Lima to Huancayo, in the heart of the Peruvian Andean highlands – but it’s really only for tourists anyway. That’s because the city, located about 3,260 meters above sea level, is best reached by long-distance bus. Many Indigenous people live in this region. Although Huancayo is only the regional capital of Junín, its universities and educational institutions are of supraregional importance. One of them is the Seminario Andino San Pablo (SASP).
When the SASP began its work in 1996, things were different. At that time, the seminary hoped that its pastoral-theological training programs would primarily reach the rural and Indigenous populations of the Andean region, who were often neglected in terms of educational infrastructure. The approach that the SASP has pursued ever since is not to interpret the Bible according to a conservative fundamentalist tradition, but rather to teach biblical studies in a way that is relevant to the local context, culturally open, and practical. From an early stage, issues such as gender justice, the prevention of domestic violence, and ecumenism also played an important role in this effort. Pastor César Llanco, Academic Director of SASP since 1999, sums up the goals as follows: “Our aim is for theological education not to produce Christians with a fundamentalist mindset, but rather Christians with a way of thinking rooted in a liberation perspective.”
Just how seriously the Seminary takes its own goals – such as gender justice – is also evident in the composition of its faculty: Today, seven of the 14 faculty members are women.
The Christian Faith Is Meant to Liberate
Such openness is by no means a given in a country where machismo remains the prevailing mindset. Violence against women is not uncommon. At the same time, such violence is only officially recorded when it results in the woman’s death. This is because women are mostly viewed as second-class citizens and as the property of men. According to Pastor César Llanco, the Christian faith plays an ambivalent role in this worldview. “In many Christian families, the man is the head of the household. This notion stems from a fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible that allows men to rule over the family. But at the Seminary, we believe that faith should help us change this situation and abolish male dominance.”
© Foto: privat | The 2019 class of female graduates celebrates their graduation.
With its stance on women, the Seminary is an exception even among Peru’s Christian denominations. César Llanco is certain, however, that there is an urgent need for action, particularly with regard to the fundamentalist interpretation of the Bible by a growing number of groups and churches that cling to outdated ideas and reject new concepts such as gender justice or climate justice. This even goes so far as to prevent women from studying, on the grounds that they are incapable of carrying out pastoral ministry. Pastor Llanco does not currently expect these trends to subside. On the contrary, based on his observations, fundamentalism in Latin America has actually increased over the past five to seven years. The Seminario Andino San Pablo also aims to counter this development.
Indigenous People Have Few Opportunities for Education and Training
But the seminary is not only committed to women’s rights. Another focus is on the education of the rural and indigenous populations, which often overlap. Indigenous people in Peru have few opportunities for education and training. This is due, among other things, to infrastructure issues. Many indigenous communities live in relative isolation. But it is also a cultural problem. In many schools, instruction is conducted exclusively in Spanish, and the quality of the school a child can attend depends directly on the parents’ financial means. These are generally particularly limited in indigenous families.
© Foto: privat | Graduates of the Bachillerato program in Huancayo in 2019.
To mitigate this disparity – and when Indigenous students and trainees are willing to leave their hometowns to pursue their education – there is government support for the relevant educational programs. But even here, there are problems with implementation, explains César Llanco. Corruption, embezzlement, miscalculations, favoritism, staff shortages, and, at times, inadequate teacher training were the main problems before the pandemic. With the pandemic, it became clear once again that people in the city were still better able to continue their education, while people in rural areas sometimes didn’t even have access to the internet and there were practically no educational opportunities available for affected children.
The SASP’s programs address this unique aspect of the education system and offer a variety of decentralized continuing education courses for adults with varying levels of prior education, particularly in the areas of theological and pastoral training. These include several diploma programs open even to people with little formal schooling, as well as a four-year “Bachillerato” program that leads to a recognized university degree. During the pandemic, these programs were largely offered online and by mail.
A Thorn in the Side of Conservative Churches
For the Seminario Andino San Pablo, however, the focus is not solely on empowering its graduates – although César Llanco is certain that this is valuable in and of itself. The seminary sees itself as a safe space where people can think differently without being judged, a place that offers freedom for dialogue and raises topics for discussion that are not addressed elsewhere.
It is precisely this progressive nature of the SASP that is a thorn in the side of many conservative churches. Many do not recognize the theological training provided by SASP. The idea of ecumenism and a contextual interpretation of the Bible, as is common in liberation theology, tends to be off-putting in fundamentalist circles. Nevertheless, there are also students from fundamentalist denominations enrolled. For Pastor Llanco, this is an opportunity to actively help shape change.
And the change has already begun: “The fact that people from rural areas can earn a university degree that empowers and qualifies them is an unimaginable idea for many. But this empowerment happens not only on the level of reflection but also on a very personal level, because a university degree helps people advance in society,” explains Llanco. Although the SASP, based in the highlands, reaches only a small portion of Christians in this predominantly Catholic country – where evangelical-fundamentalist movements are on the rise – Pastor César Llanco is confident about the SASP’s work: “It isn’t much, but it is significant.”
Seminario Andino San Pablo
The Seminario Andino San Pablo (SASP) stands for a context-sensitive, culturally open, and practice-oriented theology. Its programs counter conservative-fundamentalist influences with a theology that focuses on the situation of women, gender justice, and ecological responsibility. In intercultural courses, participants learn to perceive Andean culture with sensitivity and to incorporate its perspectives into theological thought and action.
The SASP aims to empower women and young adults in particular. It supports students in developing their research and communication skills and in confidently helping to shape their congregations. In this way, it empowers them to take on responsibility and actively influence decisions in the congregations to which they belong or which they lead.
More about SASP: andinosanpablo.org